On July 12, 2022, my world took a sharp downturn on the health front. It was a very hot July day. I worked too hard for too long in the heat at my Dundurn farm. The end result was a bad case of atrial fibrillation, AFib for short. For some, AFib means you get a pacemaker and carry on with life.
In my case, it was not that simple. It is a heart condition, but a leaky valve in the right chamber made it basically a heart failure situation. I have spent some time in the hospital — not a fun gig and I do not plan on going back.
At the age of 82, I am ready to go. My wish was always to die with my boots on. The last four generations of my line of Henrys all died between the ages of 80 and 82, so I did not buy any annuities when I turned 80.
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Until recently, it was my thinking I would not see the snow melt in the spring. A book about heart problems stressed the need for exercise, so I have been doing regular exercises including the outdoors, even in cool weather.
Heavy diuretics were required to get rid of the water accumulated in the legs. And the exercise seems to have helped big time. Blood tests on October 7 showed nothing but bad news but the same blood tests October 26 showed nothing but good news and I feel much stronger. I am still skin and bones and trying to put on body weight.
All of this has left much uncertainty about Grainews, but editor Kari Belanger has been very helpful. I hope to be able to get back to doing some columns, but I’m not sure about all of the columns during the busy January to April period. I hope to do the soil moisture map as of Nov. 1, 2022, and have it ready for January, so it will have a long life while you are making your cropping plans for 2023.
We will keep you posted as the days slide by. It is always a thrill to hear from readers and to see that the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan found use for my May 31 column called “N2O, a powerful GHG — or is it?”
